Time ended at the gate.
Or perhaps it began.
Selene stepped forward with one hand gripping Kael's, the other holding Elira close. Behind them, Rowan and Naeria moved with swords drawn and magic pulsing. Theron stood just ahead—silent, glowing, caught in the strange gaze of the other child who had emerged from the mirror.
The girl of fire.
She looked like him. Moved like him. But her eyes—
Her eyes held centuries.
---
They crossed the mirror.
It didn't feel like walking.
It felt like falling upward, like being unraveled thread by thread and re-stitched with memories not their own. Selene's skin burned. Kael grunted beside her. Elira cried out—but not in pain.
In knowing.
And then they landed.
---
The world beyond Elunari was not a world at all.
It was a realm of echoes.
Everything shimmered in fragments. Trees flickered between growth and ruin. Rivers ran backward. The stars above spun in circles, then halted completely.
And standing at the center of it all—
A throne of flame.
Empty.
But waiting.
---
The girl turned to them. "This is what will be. What could be. Or what already was."
Kael stepped forward, shielding Selene and the twins. "Who are you?"
"I am the part of him that burned," she said, pointing to Theron. "The choice he might still make. I am the ruler of the world after fire devours it."
Selene tightened her grip on her son.
He stared back at his mirror-self with unreadable eyes. "You're not me."
"Not yet," she said. "But the Flame knows your name. It already wrote your ending."
"I don't want your ending."
The girl's eyes flickered. "Then choose another. But it will still cost."
---
Elira stepped forward.
The realm hummed at her presence.
Plants unfroze. Rivers began to ripple forward. The stars blinked.
"You don't belong here," the girl said to her. "You are the counterweight. The stillness. You'll never understand what he feels."
"I don't need to," Elira said, voice steady. "I just need to stay."
---
Selene watched as her children stared across at their mirrored selves—flame and moonlight, possibility and prophecy, two sides of the same power.
She whispered to Kael, "What is this place?"
"It's a decision, love," he murmured. "Made manifest."
---
Naeria began to chant low under her breath, reading the symbols in the air.
"It's not real," she said. "It's a spiritual plane—a pocket woven from the mirror's will. It shows what might be, in order to shape what will be."
Rowan added, "But if we stay too long, it won't just shape the future—it will trap us in it."
---
Theron turned to Selene. "If I let go of the fire, she disappears."
Selene nodded. "Yes."
"She's part of me. I feel her."
"And she's not the only part. You get to choose which pieces grow."
"But I'm afraid." He looked down at his hands, flames licking his skin. "What if I become her anyway?"
Selene dropped to her knees before him. "Then we keep choosing. Every day. Every moment. That's all we can do."
---
The girl tilted her head.
"There is another path," she said.
Selene looked up.
"What?"
"The throne is empty now. If someone else takes it, he won't have to."
Elira flinched. "You mean me?"
The girl smiled. "You already glow like a queen."
---
The throne pulsed.
Theron shook his head. "No. Not her. Not anyone."
Then, suddenly, his eyes flared wide. "She's coming."
The air cracked.
The flame twisted.
And from the light—
She emerged.
The Fire Queen.
Not the girl.
Not a child.
But the ancient god-bound presence Selene had seen in dreams.
She towered above them, clothed in embers, hair floating like smoke, eyes glowing coals.
> "You brought them here," she said, voice echoing through the bones of the realm. "You opened the gate. You spilled the blood. Now one of you must claim the fire."
Kael stood tall. "We didn't come to be ruled."
The Queen smiled coldly. "Then you came to die."
---
She raised her hand—
But Elira stepped between them, arms wide.
Her light flared so brightly the realm blinked.
The Queen paused.
"You would stand against me?"
"I stand with them."
The Queen studied her.
Then looked to Theron.
And in a voice as old as the stars, she said:
> "Then choose, flamechild. Sit the throne—or watch your twin take your place."
---
Silence.
Theron trembled.
Selene felt her heart split.
And then—
He turned.
And walked away from the throne.
"No," he said.
The realm trembled.
The Queen laughed—once.
And vanished in fire.
---
The throne cracked.
The girl disappeared like smoke.
The realm pulsed once—twice—
And began to collapse.
---
Kael grabbed Selene's hand.
"Go!"
They ran—Elira holding Theron's hand, Rowan and Naeria shielding them with bursts of raw magic as the mirror realm crumbled behind them.
Light.
Heat.
Sound.
And then—
They were back.
On the cliff.
Under real stars.
And the mirror of Elunari?
Gone.
Shattered to dust.
---
Theron collapsed.
But he smiled.
"I didn't choose the fire," he whispered.
Elira hugged him tight. "No. You chose us."
Selene bent over them, sobbing softly, pressing her hands over their joined fingers.
Kael wrapped his arms around her.
Rowan stared at the starlit sky.
Naeria stood still, hands on her heart, whispering thanks to every god still listening.
---
Far away, in the Ashborn camp, the flames died.
Banners fell.
And somewhere in the ruins—
The true First Flame flickered.
Watching.
Waiting.
Because even if the boy refused it…
The prophecy was not yet done.
---